Farewell to A1, and a Country’s Lost Hopes

In 1993, at the dawn of Macedonia’s independence, I had the honour to be part of the group of journalists that launched the first private TV station. It was called A1.

With a lot of enthusiasm and a desire to break the monolithic grey media landscape that we’d inherited from the Communist regime, we created the most popular TV station in the country.

We operated chaotically and often in conflict, under the influence of our own egos and with lack of experience, but also battling powerful politicians’ attempts to compromise our mission.  

We were driven by the dream of creating new foundations for Macedonia as a country with a true Euro-Atlantic vocation, a country in which multiculturalism and multi-confessionalism would be seen as a boon and not a handicap - a country in which everyone would enjoy the benefits of civilizational norms in terms of human rights and freedom.

In short, we wanted everything that Macedonia had not been until then! Those were the postulates of our editorial policy, along with high professional journalistic standards. With some exceptions, in its 18 years of existence, A1 was devoted to meeting these high goals, which at the end of the story cost it its life.

The first temptations came with our efforts to provide audiences with the opinions of the opposition as an alternative to what the ruling parties were saying.  

It wasn’t simple, as the opposition was obsessed with typical Balkan nationalist myths that left little room for tolerating differences. Bearing in mind everything that had occurred in the region during those years, our imperative was to discourage nationalism.

On the other hand, what we then had in power were barely reformed Communists who were not making much genuine attempt to transform themselves into democrats.

Our attempts to make room for the opposition, on which we insisted, bothered them. They wanted to keep on enjoying the fake mirror of the state-run media, which continued to assure them, in Snow White style, that they were “still the most beautiful of all”.

Our popularity grew, but Macedonia’s neo-Communists, charmed by Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Serbia, remained stronger. In 1995, the government sent the police into the western town of Tetovo to stop the entirely legitimate attempt of local ethnic Albanians to form an Albanian university.

Soon after, even more severe police action occurred in Gostivar, again against Albanian demands for more rights.

Parallel with this, the government continuously violated the rights and freedoms of all citizens who weren’t part of the political elite. A1 was in open conflict with the ruling Social Democrats behind these actions, which were unfitting for a country striving to position itself among the European democracies.

We did not win these battles but our influence grew. The opposition finally realized that they had to abandon their rigid nationalist positions. VMRO-DPMNE reformed itself into a Christian Democrat-style party, capable of recognizing the multiethnic reality of Macedonia.

In 1998 our criticism of the Social Democrat government helpedVMRO-DPMNE to win that year’s election. We supported the new government’s reforms, especially their attempts to provide more rights for Albanians and other ethnic groups in the country.

Unfortunately, they soon became fascinated by power and the lucrative possibilities that came with it. They got caught up in corruption, while the war in Serbia and Kosovo came to our northern border.

After NATO intervened on the side of the Albanians in Kosovo, Albanian euphoria crossed the borders into Macedonia in 2001, finding fertile terrain in a land where interethnic relations remained fraught.

As the conflict spread, there was growing talk of a population exchange. It was a dangerous idea that might have cost thousands of lives. Again, we faced a difficult task, countering that insanity.

In an atmosphere of collective hysteria, our efforts met heavy resistance and we were often labeled traitors and servants of international factors.

In the end the war was stopped, and the 2001 Ohrid agreement was signed. That success was down to international pressure rather than to our influence on the public, but A1 still played a vital role in those months, by providing objective coverage.

After this, we did out best to promote the spirit of that peace deal that the politicians had signed in Ohrid. The Macedonian political elite, in spite of having signed the document, behaved as if it had accepted the agreement under pressure.

The Albanians on the other hand, wanted much more than the peace deal actually promised in terms of federalization. In the media, we were alone in promoting the Ohrid agreement.

In 2002, the Social Democrats regained power, aided by our criticism of the VMRO-DPMNE government. But they soon showed they were the same people we’d known back in 1998.

They accepted the Ohrid Agreement, but only as a necessary evil that enjoyed the support of the international community, and they kept on behaving as they had always done, without any intention of reforming institutions and adjusting to European standards.

A1 sharply criticized the new government for its lack of commitment to reforms. Public opinion increasingly agreed and support for the Social Democrats fell.

The vacuum was filled by the new leader of the supposedly reformed VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski. We regarded him as a technocrat who would finally bring in real reform. Borrowing our own criticisms of the Social Democrat-led government, Gruevski won the 2006 elections.

After winning, the new leader at first displayed a desire to reform, but that did not last long. He started promoting irrational politics, dividing the nation between Antique Macedonians and Slavs.

Propelled by the same irrational desires he then went onto to realize the megalomaniacal project known as Skopje 2014, which among other things has brought an enormous equestrian statue of Alexander the Great to the centre of Skopje.

Human rights and freedoms became increasingly abstract. Every different opinion was anathematized. Matters started getting out of control fast. People became more fearful.

Public debates became rare, and more or less ceased after the last election. With the exception of A1, the media fell under the control of the Prime Minister. Everything was the polar opposite of the postulates of our editorial politics.

Led by those principles, we heavily criticised the government. We exposed the reality behind its alleged dedication to the search for a solution to the “name” dispute with Greece. In return, we were accused of working for foreign, Greek, interests.

But A1 remained the most powerful TV station. One poll showed that 75 per cent of the viewing population received their information only from us. Such levels of confidence were unknown in other media. Gruevski, with his now known deficit of democratic spirit, was not capable of dealing with this.

While A1 and the individuals working for it were attacked and discredited, the government built up its rivals by becoming their greatest advertisers. It did not skimp on spending millions of euros on favoured local media that were under the complete control of the Prime Minister’s office.

The criteria by which it advertised in these favoured media houses had nothing to do with the principles of the market economy.

The lack of those principles was a good argument - or excuse - for the way that business was conducted - not only in our TV company - in most of the companies founded since Macedonia gained independence.

Without trying to defend this business culture I should say that in my last conversation with the owner of A1 TV, who is now in prison, I asked him to discuss some of our social rights as employees. He ended the conversation saying he had bigger problems - to do with the difficulties he was encountering with the prevalent political influence in the advertising market.

Finally, having failed to keep us down, the authorities resorted to brutal tactics. The entire management of the company was taken into custody on the grounds of tax evasion.

No quarter was given to the attempts of A1 employees to maintain the company as a profitable business on the market. The events that followed during the last days of the station’s life were tragic, even if they were now expected. Overnight, 220 employees became jobless. From last Saturday, the frequency on which A1 broadcast its programmes went blank and black. Gruevski had won.

The closure of A1 means that the public is now deprived of any forum for debate, challenging Gruevski’s party’s version of the truth, or even providing opinions critical of the current political establishment.

On September 8 Macedonia celebrates 20 years of independence, and I will drink a shot of rakija in memory of the lost hope, enthusiasm, effort and love invested by a whole generation of journalists in Macedonia. It is indicative that most of them are no longer in the country.

Borjan Jovanovski is a journalist, former editor at A1 and author of Evrozum, a weekly TV magazine covering EU affairs.

This article is funded under the BICCED project, supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme.